School doesn’t acknowledge Diwali

[Wildflour]

Hi Ladies,

I would like to know your view on this or am I just overthinking it. My childrens school acknowledges a lot of celebrations/events etc

Christmas, Easter, Eid, Hanukkah, Black History Month, Jubilee etc. However nothing is said about Diwali/Vaisakhi/Bandi Chor Divas. It really saddens me that they make such a big deal out of everything else but not our religion.
Schools current news letter highlighted what’s happening for October
Black History Month & International Evening for Black History Month.

what are other parents views on this? Do you have to give them abit of a nudge or be direct about it? Does it not bother you if they didn’t seem to make it abit of a deal?

tia x

That is very odd. I've never heard of a school not celebrating Diwali. I think you need to raise it with school.

I know my youngest DD’s school celebrated Diwali. I think it’s important to acknowledge important celebrations wherever possible. I don’t have a faith but I want my children to know about religion so they can a) decide if there is a religion they believe in and b) have a better understanding of others faith. My eldest decided she wanted to join a CofE church when she was 8 because of learning about faith in school. She’s now 13 and has been baptised and confirmed and attends church most Sundays. If you are going to celebrate some then I feel it should be all so that all children can join in with something that’s part of who they are..if that makes sense?

In our school (I am on the teaching side) we cannot celebrate everything so we choose different focuses for different years (although we do include all the key religious events in the school calendar). I'd recommend you bring it up and ask if there could be a focus one (hopefully next) year that you could help advise / organise. I'm so grateful for help and advice in my school. There are so many wonderful things to celebrate around Diwali.

I worked in Early Years for many years and Diwali was always celebrated and my adult children’s primary schools always celebrated too. If you approach the school I am sure they would be really grateful if you felt able to offer resources etc, it does seem very strange.

I’d certainly speak to the school to ask what plans they might have to acknowledge Diwali, there are plenty of printable activities available to do across the primary years. How would you feel about offering to help set up something? A talk in assembly or in class?

Hannukah is really a minor holiday and it's slightly annoying that Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur aren't mentioned, however, me and kiddo did Rosh Hashanah cards and Yom Kippur gifts and I sent her to school with them which forced the teacher to read up on the holidays and she decided to show the class a video on it. Then daughter got Head Teacher award for sharing holiday traditions. Go figure..

I remember when I trained years and years ago. We celebrated it then back in the primary school I was training in.

Majority do celebrate Diwali but what I have found is that it massively depends on the geographic area as to which cultures and festivities are acknowledged.

There are some schools for example that I have worked in who have not acknowledged Christmas but instead chose to call it “ winter festival”.

🤷‍♀️

Diwali often falls the October half term
Schools tend to do assemblies etc for world religions when it is term time but not so much when it isnt.

Lots of schools do look at Diwali and it is often part of the local agreed syllabus for RE.

are you in a position to help school with setting something up?

ds primary school was fantastic at covering different religious holidays as much as possible but the ones which seem to really stay with the children are those when someone from that community has been involved.

The school I worked at had over 95% Asian intake, so Divali was a really big event. We also did Christmas, Easter, Eid and Harvest Festival. It was great.

I thought most schools celebrate every religious holiday, I’d bring it up next parent evening.

It's in half term this year though, surely?

Diwalis is a great festival to celebrate because of all the colourful craft activities that can be involved. But realistically, spending a significant amount of time on all the varying cultural and religious festivals, in every year group, every year, would take up a heck of a lot of currriculum time.

You might find that different year groups focus on different festivals, but that over two or three years, each child will have explored and celebrated each festival in some way.

Thank you for all the replies & it seems most schools do acknowledge Diwali.
Come Christmas they have Jumper day, Christmas Lunch, Christmas Assembly, Christmas Class Party - a lot of time goes into planning all this so I don’t think it’s fair for them to forget Diwali for literally maybe 1 small session of the school day.
I may just email the headteacher and find out if there if any plans but let’s see what she says.
thank you for all the replies I really appreciate it x

Our school was a

Mental. We had Diwali at primary school in the 1980s. It's hardly obscure. It's in KS2 and has been for decades.

www.bbc.co.uk/teach/class-clips-video/religious-studies-ks2-my-life-my-religion-hinduism-diwali-festival-of-light/z668qp3

www.bbc.co.uk/teach/school-radio/assemblies-ks1-ks2-festivals-index/z96xwnb

Sorry, cut myself off. I do think you need to raise it, if you feel up to it. It's a big thing to miss out and the school are letting the kids down a bit.

My little one wanted to share sweets with his friends at school for Diwali and I was informed it wasn't possible even though they allowed a parent to distribute sweets for Eid. I think that's very unfair.
They have Christmas and Eid parties but no importance for Diwali.
So I told my little one he can make cookies for the elderly in care home.

If you’re writing to the Head - send them this link to the NATRE website:
www.natre.org.uk/resources/?Search=diwali&SearchType=or&Free=1&NoDefaultFilter=

Lots of Diwali resources for primary phase so they can’t use the excuse that they haven’t got any.

Is it deliberate or just oversight? Our school doesn’t celebrate Eid and one of the parents pointed this out this year and the Head had a bit of an “oh sh**” moment. It hadn’t been deliberately missed and now it’s been pointed out, Eid will be celebrated going forward.

@Wildflour I know this thread is a year old but I'm interested to know the outcome of your emailing the headteacher. Did the school do anything for Diwali this year?

(Not to open a whole new can of worms about politics, but this year obviously there has been a lot of focus on Jewish and Islamic topics and efforts to fight antisemitism and Islamophobia in schools and universities. Of course this is very good and much needed, but my feeling was that Diwali probably got left out even more.)

I agree they should celebrate Diwali but I am Indian and I never heard of Bandi Chor Divas.

It is an occasion that Sikhs mark every year and it coincides with Diwali. We don’t have a large Sikh population locally so I try to ensure my kids are learning about our heritage at home.

How odd, every school my DC has celebrated. It's one of the world's major religious festivals, it's also really easy to do an activity around it so can be slotted into an art class.

Op where do you live? My experience in London is that it's usually celebrated in schools private or state.

Oh ffs zombie thread 😭